Page title

OIE Guidelines on slaughter or killing of animals

15 February 2006

Dear Sir/Madam

The Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC) is an independent advisory body established by the British Government in 1979. Its terms of reference are to keep under review the welfare of farm animals on agricultural land, at market, in transit and at place of slaughter; and to advise Ministers in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales, of any legislative or other changes that may be necessary. It is also free to make comments on animal welfare to external bodies.

Council believes that adopting global animal welfare standards is an important step forward in protecting the welfare of farmed animals, and a potential method of ensuring the welfare provenance of imported animal products as well as those produced in GB. Acceptance of global standards by the WTO is hopefully not far away. FAWC would like to take the available opportunity to pass to you comments on the OIE Guidelines on the Slaughter of Animals for Human Consumption (Appendix XXII) and for the Killing of Animals for Disease Control Purposes (Appendix XXIII).

These guidelines give a very useful review of the available methods of slaughter and killing. While some details about methods not used in Great Britain need to be included in a global document we will restrict ourselves to methods used in GB.

In general; Council finds the approach of considering the advantages and disadvantages of each method very helpful in assessing the welfare issues. However, there may be cases where the guidance can read a little simplistically, for example where it does not make it clear whose specific responsibility it is to maintain the efficiency of slaughter equipment or where bold assertions are made on the advantages of carbon dioxide as a stunning method as “readily available” and “application methods are simple”. This may not be the case universally and practical difficulties associated with each method need to be addressed.

Appendix XXII

Specific points supported by FAWC, and referred to in our Report on the Welfare of Farmed Animals at Slaughter or Killing: Part One – Red Meat Animals (2003), are:

Page 281, 3. last paragraph dealing with animals’ sensitivity to loud and sudden noises.

Page 282, 1. e) The point is made about the objective measurement of the use of goads and slipping and falling and the remedial action to be instigated, and.

Page 283, 1. k) A 99% non falling rate from monitoring of slips and falls is a worthy goal.

Page 284 –286 Excellent on design. Guidance agrees with the basic tenet that if the way that the handler wishes animals to move is the way they choose to move naturally without coercion then you have a well designed and welfare friendly set-up.

Page 287, 12. Guidelines recommend cattle are horn free in Markets and Transport. FAWC has gone further, (the obvious progression) and recommended that, apart from some traditionally horned breeds, animals with horns, or with newly removed horns, should not be presented for slaughter.

Page 299, The optimum position for mechanically stunning horses is at the tip of the forelock. This position has been put forward by veterinary members and is easier to identify than imagining a point well above an imaginary cross.

Appendix XXIII

Page, 315, Point 1. is consistent with FAWC’s view regarding the importance of examination of competence by an independent body.

Appendix XXIV

Page 348, Under Veterinary Services bullet point 5 advises the dissemination of information through the food chain. FAWC supports the exchange of data both up and back down the food chain. Post mortem exercises, the prime reason for which is to ensure that the meat is safe for human consumption, should also provide information to the producer about his husbandry system in the broadest sense and it can also give information about the handling of the animals.

FAWC Secretariat